Raqqa provincial council on Sunday announced its rejection of the inclusion of the town of Tal Abyad into the Alfurat region in the new administrative divisions announced on Thursday by the terrorist militias of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) in the areas they control in northern and northeastern Syria.

The PYD militias decided to divide the areas of the self-styled so-called “Self-Administration” into three administrative provinces after delineating new borders and giving new names to the three provinces.

The PYD ratified on Thursday the decision whereby the areas they occupy in north and northeastern Syria were divided to the provinces of Aljazira, Alfurat, and Afrin.

“Raqqa provincial council totally rejects this move,” said Saad Shawish, head of the provincial council in Raqqa. He pointed out that the council will protest the PYD move to the international anti-ISIS coalition and the United Nations. Shawish added that people of Raqqa will resort to arms to defend their areas should diplomatic efforts fail.

Shawish underscored that the people of Raqqa reject these divisions as the Kurds comprise no more than 15 percent of the total population of the province. Noting that the PYD are imposing their control by the force of arms, Shawish said that the new administrative divisions imposed by the so-called “Self-Administration” followed in the footsteps of the ISIS extremist group which previously re-divided the areas under its control to include towns and villages from outside Syria to the provinces it announced.

The so-called “Self-administration” does not consider the local population of Raqqa as “partners in the homeland,” but treat them on a racial basis, Shawish said. He cited the PYD militias’ seizure of property and the forced recruitment of the youth of the province.

Forces of the international anti-ISIS coalition made a “big mistake” by depending on the “Self-Administration” in the region as they substituted the religious extremism of ISIS with ethnic extremism, Shawish said referring to the terrorist PYD militias.